Why I invested in Backupify

April 20, 2010 – 10:16 am

Recently I closed an angel investment in backupify.  It’s my first investment since last year’s move into Member Minded.

Both are local, Louisville-based companies run by guys that I know well and trust.  That’s about where the similarities stop.

Backupify was a pretty easy call for me for the following reasons:

  1. Rob May, the CEO and founder, is a good dude.  He works very hard, very smart and is going to have a big win.  I just want to be a part of it when it happens.
  2. The concept grows with “social media” and “the cloud”.  Both are getting high hype, but their pin-action is just beginning.  Backupify can solve a problem that people have (what happens if….) and more exciting (for me), can solve a problem that companies have (what are our regulated employees saying and how do we stay compliant?)
  3. Carbonite needs them to fill in a major, major hole in their product line.  It’s such a natural buyer that makes so much sense….in other words, I see a clear exit opportunity.
  4. I was the last man in (smarter, better connected people set price and terms) and I was investing with a completely different circle than I’m normally “in” with.  Sacca, betaworks, etc.  It’s just good networking and I have a lot to learn from these clowns.

So that’s it.  I expect to make good coin off of this deal, but if I don’t…at least I know where the CEO drinks.

Win.

  • Nice Andy, for some reason I wasn't aware you angel invested and thought you were all entrepreneur. Curious to see how Rob's run with Backupify turns out, if nothing else the name is a sure sign of the deliberate focus of the product and service. That clarity is something I can certainly respect.

    Just a heads up from my quick and dirty review. Dropbox offers some very similar services at different price points and has a pretty clear market advantage. I'm not sure what their paying customer vs. free customer break point is though, but I've used and evangelized the service for free extra storage. Their price point is $9.99 per month for 50gigabytes. The tool synchronizes automatically between all connected Dropbox installs.

    Drew Houston the founder is a freaking genius for nailing the technology, we'll see if he nails the business end.

    PS. I don't backup my blog with dropbox, I email myself mysql databases nightly. I'm not sure if dropbox would play nice with Hostmonster. If it does it would make deploying servers for my startup pretty sick but I have the $7/month server so it's just blogs to stay in good graces.

  • Hey Mark. I know dropbox (same people doing drop.io?) and I think it's great. I do think it's very different though in that backupify is a service that automatically runs and backs up your stuff being hosted on other sites (Flickr, blog, gmail, twitter, etc).

    The user does nothing after the initial setup...
  • Very cool. I think I can see a need for backupify in my online
    wanderings. Would be cool if there was a lifetime option, fire and
    forget with a long term fund supporting it. "Let your ideas live on
    eternally"

    Drop.io I have heard of but not read up on yet. Any ideas?
  • Drop.io is great for sharing files indefinitely and without the limits that
    email can give you.

    I agree backupify hasn't nailed the pricing side of it yet. Personally, I'd
    like them to go back to a reasonable free account, with premium accounts for
    size or for orgs concerned about compliance.....and really focus on creating
    revenue possibilities from the data itself (search my online world, organize
    & publish, etc.)

    Early days with smart, hungry people at the wheel. Love being involved!
  • Interesting, congratulations. Doesn't sound like you'll need it, but good luck with this one.

    Question: is this,

    and more exciting (for me), can solve a problem that companies have (what are our regulated employees saying and how do we stay compliant?)


    The major hole you were referring to in #3?
  • No...I think carbonite continues to go after the individual....I just think it's a no-brainer that they need to offer backup of the stuff that DOESN'T live on your hard-drive (blog, twitter, gmail, etc) as well.
  • OK, thanks for the clarification.
  • stringsn88keys
    #2 [for companies/enterprise] becomes even more powerful when connected to an enterprise search engine. The compliance implications are only going to grow exponentially, and there are huge bucks involved in providing IT services to the enterprise. Ask anyone who has signed the approval for an IBM product or service purchase in their organization.

    For #3, I would say that whichever desktop backup service first provides services like Backupify is providing will get my subscription dollars.

  • Agree on both counts 100%.
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